Mexican Students Enjoy Time In Canton

Although it’s been a couple years since Canton students have been able to travel to Saltillo, Mexico, an exchange program with a school in the city continues to thrive.

Canton High School recently hosted five students and a teacher from the Ateneo Fuente School in Saltillo, Mexico.

While here the students stayed with host families, experienced Canton classrooms, visited some historical sites, including the Mark Twain House, and participated in some outdoor activities, such as hikes to Heublein Tower and Campbell Falls.

“What I liked most was that the people in Canton are very nice; they are warm and welcoming,” said Alvaro Morales Betancourt. “The places here are beautiful.”

Margarita Ramos loved the Heublein hike, a contrast to the drier, more industrial city she comes from.

“The view, it’s amazing,” she said.

The students’ teacher Victor Herrera agrees. 

While the October storm altered the view quite a bit from the other three visits he’s taken here, Herrera said it’s still a beautiful area.

“The trees — the colors, reds and yellows, they are so beautiful,” he said.

Bill Coleman’s family hosted Betancourt and participated in several activities with the students. He said he initially felt a little tentative about hosting a student but is so glad the family did. 

“It was wonderful,” he said during a dinner at Flatbread near the end of the stay. “Alvaro is a great young man. We’re going to miss him.”

The program is about relationships and breaking down stereotypes, said Michael Wu, a parent who helped start it 13 years ago.

As a young teen, Wu traveled to the northern Mexican city by bus from New Haven.

He was miserable for the first three weeks spent there but in the weeks to follow fell in love with the industrial city.

He would go back again and again and spent about six years studying there in high school and college. Most schools were happy to have a foreign student and did not charge tuition. 

“Being able to study in another country and learn about another culture was amazing,” Wu said. 

Due to violence in northern Mexico for the past couple years, administrators and teachers have not sought Board of Education permission for trips to Saltillo. 

And while it's disappointing, Wu feels it’s still a valuable experience to host the students from Mexico.

“The relationships are lifelong (and) break down barriers,” he said. “They have the same negative stereotypes of Americans that we have of Mexicans.”

The students also learn about some of the differences in the school day as well. As a college prep school, Ateneo Fuente has a much more open campus and more freedom in class choice.

"There's a lot more responsibility and freedom," Wu said. 

Spanish teacher Joanne Chasen came to Canton several years ago and was amazed to learn of the program. She also studied in the Mexican city during an exchange while attending the University of New Hampshire.

She said she was grateful for the chance to take a trip to the city. 

“I feel very blessed,” she said. “It gave me the opportunity to go back.”

And while she hopes the Canton students can start making the trip again soon, she agrees that even a one-way exchange is so valuable to the students. 

“They just develop a bond immediately,” she said. “They get very close, very quickly.”